I was surprised to read in my uncle, Paddy MacMonagle’s book Shreds and Patches that Mrs Beeton travelled through Ireland in the summer of 1860. Surprised, as when you think about it, a foodie like Beeton chose Ireland for a holiday – considering that there  was still probably a whiff of the Famine in the air. But she and her husband Sam toured from Dublin to Killarney (made popular by Queen Victoria’s visit in 1849) and on to Cork via Glengarriff and back again to Dublin. They were quite the business couple and displayed leaflets advertising her latest cookery book in shops in Cork and Queenstown (Cobh). She paid for the trip by a series of travel articles she published in the Englishwoman’s Domestic Magazine (EDM) – Sam posted these to London every day – it only took 24 hours for post from Killarney to London, and they had several business meetings with book sellers in Dublin.

Isabella Beeton who died at the young age of 29 was the fashionista of her day, I always thought she was old and comely but if she was alive today she would definitely be as media savvy as Rachel Allen or Martha Stewart. She stayed in the Imperial Hotel “one of the best and oldest hotels in Cork” and enjoyed dinner which they took every evening at their favoured time of 5.50pm. She picked up recipies along the way and included one in a cookbook published in 1888 called  Mouton a I’lrlandaise (Irish Stew – click here for the recipie – thank you Conrad Bladey). She advises: Never cover the pot when boiling potatoes – which was news to me over 120 years later.

You can buy Mrs Beeton’s All about Cookery Book on Etsy.com  HERE

Shreds and Patches by Paddy MacMonagle (available from Killarney Printing Works) was first published in 2010 when Paddy was only 90 years old. He is currently working on another book.